My Journey Farhan Sakif

As the Chinese saying goes, “he who stays near vermilion gets stained red; he who stays near ink gets stained black.” If one were to take that literally, I would practically be a rainbow. It is widely held that the environment that one grows up in plays an integral role in shaping a person. However, for me, the situation is quite different. For the first twelve years of my life, remembering my home address was troublesome business; I lacked a permanent address, moving from Sudan to Sri Lanka to Sierra Leone. In my head, telephone numbers, street names, roads and zip codes blended into a mishmash of data.

There I was: sitting on my bed playing FIFA 2002, completely oblivious to the fact that the course of my life was about to change. Suddenly, I heard my door creak open. It was my father.

“I was offered a job in Sudan,” he said.

“What is that?” I replied, bewildered.

“It’s a country,” he told me. “We will be moving there soon.”

Everything went by very fast the next few months, and, soon, I found myself in a completely different world. The people were different; the food was different and even the trees were different!

I still remember. The house was painted a warm shade of yellow. Everything felt welcoming -- from the gleaming...